The Treehouse
by Theawkward1
Summary: A story about Sam and Jo. I blame T.Swift. This love is good, this love is bad This love is alive back from the dead These hands had to let it go free And this love came back to me


I know only about four people will read this so to those lovely few, thanks for reading :) This is complete and utter fluff. I have no idea where it came from. I started writing about three hours ago and it is completely unbeta'd. So sorry for the utter, tooth rotting contents of this fic.

XXXX

_Six years old_

The Winchesters and the Harvelle's grew up next to one another. Ellen was a single mom, raising Jo by herself after her husband died in a job site accident, while John and Mary were your typical nuclear family living next door. Jo and Sam spent most of their time tagging behind Dean, trying to copy everything the older boy would do. One day, after Dean had gotten tired of the younger children, he had escaped down the street on his bike. Jo and Sam, suffering the rejection of a beloved idol, sat in the treehouse behind the Winchester's house, eating popsicles and planning their futures.

After a few moments of serious introspection, Jo took a lick of her cherry popsicle and said, "I think I'm gonna marry Dean someday, Sam."

Sam looked over at his knobby kneed friend, all coltish angles and messy blonde ponytails with a few dirt smudges thrown in for good measure, and asked, "What do you want to marry Dean for?"

Jo crunched off a bite of the icy treat and chomped on it before answering, "Well, he used to push me on the swings before I could do it myself. He can hit a baseball real far and his eyes are green."

Biting off a hunk of his popsicle, Sam frowned thoughtfully as he chewed it. Finally, he asked, "My eyes are kind of green…and I can push you on the swings. Why don't you want to marry me?"

Jo looked up into Sam's variegated hazel eyes and smiled, "You're my best friend, Sam. I can't marry my best friend."

XXXX

_Fourteen Years Old_

Fourteen was an uncomfortable age for Sam. He was just starting to hit his growth spurt and was mostly odd angles and awkward limbs. Dean was graduating from high school and getting ready to leave for college. Sometimes the idea of being without the shelter of his older brother's shadow was equally terrifying and exciting. While Sam was more serious and studious, Dean was a star athlete, decent student, popular, good looking, and his dad's favorite. He was also still the object of Jo Harvelle's affections. Jo was still Sam's best friend, which meant she had no qualms about mooning over his brother. And, over the summer, Jo had changed. She was still a tiny thing, but subtle curves had developed. She had started wearing her golden blonde hair in shiny golden waves, wearing subtle amounts of Ellen-approved makeup, and using some sort of shampoo that made her hair smell like apples.

She climbed up in the treehouse in an old t-shirt and cutoff jean shorts with her hair piled in a messy knot on top of her head while Sam was hiding from his family reading a sci-fi novel. Sam heard her footsteps climbing the rickety ladder and turned his head just as her head popped through the hole in the floor, and he felt his heart speed up and slow down at the same time. He didn't know what to do with these feelings. It was confusing to feel this way about his best friend.

Jo dropped down next to him on the old plank floor, leaning against his shoulder to peek at the page of the book he was reading.

"You're reading that again?" She asked with a smile. Sam had read and reread _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy _around a half a dozen times.

"It's one of my favorites," he said as he turned the page.

Jo leaned her head against his shoulder, watching the pages as he read. After a few minutes, she said quietly, "Mom and I had another fight."

Sam slid a bookmark in between the pages and set the book down on the floor.

"What was it about this time?" he asked, used to the volatile relationship between mother and daughter.

Jo sniffled a little before answering, "She's going to marry Bobby."

"You like Bobby," he answered, angling his body so that instead of sitting side by side, they were facing each other.

Jo rolled her eyes and wiped an errant tear from herself in a frustrated gesture. Sam knew that she hated to cry.

"Of course. I love Bobby. He makes mom so happy…but I don't want to leave the house. Mom wants to move out to his place." Another sniffle and Jo angrily swipes her cheeks with the heels of her hands. "I just don't want to leave here. You won't be right next door and this is where all of my memories of dad are."

Sam covered one of Jo's hands with his own where it rested on her knee. "It will be okay, Jo. Did you talk to your mom about it or did you just get mad and leave?"

Jo shrugged and looked away, towards a milk crate that say in the corner and held an old collection of action figures and comic books. "I just got upset and then the tears started. I yelled, she yelled back. You know how it is."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, I know." He wasn't a stranger to these same kind of arguments with his dad. "Tell your mom how you feel after you cool off. Even if you guys do move, we'll be in the same school. I'll still see you all the time."  
"I know." Jo answered, turning again to lean against Sam's shoulder. "I just feel like everything is changing all of a sudden. Dean is leaving, we might be moving… to many things are changing. I don't like it."

Sam bumped her gently with his shoulder. "It'll be okay, Jo. You'll see."

They sat quietly in the treehouse as twilight settled in around them. Crickets and cicadas started to fill the early evening with noise. Eventually, Jo turned to Sam, "I forgot to tell you. Sarah Blake asked me for your phone number."

Sam sat quietly for a moment before asking, "Uh, what for?"

"She likes you, you big nerd." Sam knew without looking that the words were accompanied by an epic eye roll.

"Did you give it to her?" he asked, shocked. Sarah Blake was a year older than they were. She was also really pretty, really smart, and really nice. _Why would she like him?_ Sam thought to himself.

Jo's voice sounded a little clipped when she answered, "Do you want me to?"

Sam hesitated before answering. He couldn't tell Jo how he felt about her. He knew she only thought of him as a friend. Surely she wouldn't be giving his phone number to other girls if he liked him as anything more. Or even worse, maybe she was starting to suspect Sam's feelings and wanted him to get together with Sarah before things got awkward between them. "I guess…" He said with a shrug.

Jo stood up quickly and brushed off the back of her shorts, "Alright, I'll give it to her later. I need to go talk to mom." And with that, Jo quickly escaped the tree house without a goodbye and Sam's line of sight. Sam watched the hole in the floor, deep in thought; until the evening became so dark he could only see shadows.

XXXX

_Eighteen Years Old_

"I can't believe you guys broke up." Charlie said through the cell phone Jo was cradling between her shoulder and her ear as she tried to paint her toenails and have a phone conversation at the same time. "Were you guys fighting? I thought things were going so well."

Jo finished the final coat and recapped the brush onto the bottle of fire engine red paint. "We weren't really fighting. I don't know… He got really weird about me hanging out with Sam after Sarah dumped him in February and then we just found other things to argue about. It became more of a trust issue than anything. Any time I was around Sam, Cole would start texting and calling. It got annoying. Plus, he was always insinuating things were going on between Sam and I. It just got really uncomfortable. I finally told him it was over."

"What are you going to do about prom?" Charlie asked.

Jo rolled her eyes and flopped back onto her bed. "I don't care about prom. I'll just stay home."

Charlie started laughing across the phone line. "Your mom is going to lose her shit. For all of that tough as nails exterior, she is weirdly set on you having a typical high school experience."

Jo glanced at the dress hanging in a sheet of plastic on the back of her bedroom door, "I don't think I will ever understand my mother. Are you and Gilda going?"

"Yes, Gilda wants to enjoy every moment of her foreign exchange student experience so I guess we are going." Charlie sighed.

Jo laughed before looking at the clock on her nightstand. "Alright, I'm going to bail. Mom is going to be home in ten minutes and I want to escape before she gets here."

"Talk to you later," Charlie said before the conversation ended.

Jo drove her beat up old pickup to the Winchester's. When Mary answered the door, smiling like sunshine, Jo asked if Sam was home.

"No, sweetie, but he should be home soon. He was getting off of work at five." Mary had been like a second mother to Jo as she, Sam and Dean had been growing up. Jo felt as comfortable in their home as she did at her mom and Bobby's place.

"When he gets back, will you tell him I'm out in the treehouse? I just need a quiet place to think."

Mary nodded, "Of course."

Jo walked around the house to the backyard and climbed up the old boards nailed to the trunk of the tree. Finally ensconced in the security of their childhood safe haven, Jo threw herself onto the ancient bean bag chair and sighed. She needed to clear her head. Telling her mom about breaking up with Cole wasn't going to be the biggest announcement she made this week. Instead of going to KU in the fall, Jo was going to take a year off and travel. She knew Ellen was going to freak out. But, Jo had watched life get in the way of everyone's dreams around her for her whole life. She didn't want to waste another moment and she wanted nothing more than to travel. Saving every penny she had ever made had left her with a saving account big enough to support her for a year; or at least a semester if she was careful enough.

Jo heard the screen door at the back of the house slam and then the muffled thud of footsteps on soft grass. Finally, she heard the boards groan as Sam hoisted himself into the treehouse. As always, Jo fought to keep her reaction to herself. Just seeing him caused her heart to skip and the most anxious sensation to flutter in her chest. She had been in love with Sam for years. She hadn't realized just how she felt until after he and Sarah had gotten together, and then, it was too late. So, she had kept everything to herself; only dating a few guys and no one seriously until Cole. And that hadn't worked out too well. She knew why Cole thought there was something going on with Sam, even if their interactions had been totally innocent. Even when Sam and Sarah had broken up Jo had stayed firmly in the supportive best friend role.

Now, looking at his tall frame, still a touch too lean but starting to fill out with muscle, those eyes that shifted from blue-green to hazel and glossy brown hair he was starting to let grow out a little shaggy, Jo knew she wouldn't be able to hide her feelings much longer. How he didn't see her heart shining out through her eyes was a miracle.

He waited until he had dropped down beside her before asking, "Fight with your mom?"

She shook her head, "Not yet. But, it's going to be a doozey."

Sam laughed, "I'm almost afraid to ask."

"I'm not going to prom." She said, deciding not to tell Sam about her big plans just yet either.

Sam laughed, "I thought it was going to be something serious. What happened? I thought you were going with Cole?" He looked concerned as he realized something must have happened between them.

"It wasn't working out. We broke up." Jo answered.

"That asshole broke up with you the day before prom?" Sam asked, sounding enraged and beginning to stand up as if he was going to go straight to Cole's house and berate him.

Jo pushed against his shoulder, nudging him back to his seated position. "No. I broke up with him."

"Oh," Sam said deliberately, nodding. "Why?"

"It just became weird. I don't want to talk about it."

Sam was quiet for a moment; finally he said slowly, "Well, we could go together…?"

Rolling her eyes, Jo asked, "Is that a question or are you asking?"

"I'm serious, Jo. Go to prom with me. It will be fun. And anyway, I'm going to Stanford in the fall and you're going to be at KU. It will be one of the last times we can all get together as a group before people start heading off to college."

Jo thought about it for a moment before she answered, "Okay. I guess it could be fun."

Sam nudged her gently with his elbow, "Geez, Joanna Beth. Don't sound so thrilled."

They both laughed. After a moment, Sam said, "Oh get this. So Dean had some big news for mom and dad when they went to Northwestern for his graduation. I guess he's dating someone and it's pretty serious."

Jo looked up at Sam, raising her eyebrows in shock. "Really? Dean is finally has a seriously girlfriend?"

Sam grinned, "Well, actually it's a guy. I think dad was a little shocked, but he introduced the guy to mom and dad while they were there. They really seemed to like him. His names Cas. It's short for something odd like Castiel. He was a TA in one of Dean's classes. I think Dean's been hiding it for a few years but mom and dad don't know that yet."

Jo leaned a little farther into Sam's side, quietly rejoicing inside when he slid his arm around her companionably. A minute passed, then she said, "Well I guess he isn't going to marry me after all."

The two dissolve into laughter and the sound floats through the open kitchen window and Mary shakes her head and sighs.

XXXX

The following week, Jo was standing outside of the Winchester's again. This time, it was dark and most of the neighborhood was sleeping. Graduation had been that afternoon, parties were held to celebrate, and afterwards Jo had dropped the bomb on her mom that she wasn't going to be enrolling for the fall semester. As expected, Ellen flipped her lid. Jo finally, after and epic shouting match even Bobby couldn't diffuse, stormed up to her room. Once she heard the house settle into sleep around her, much later in the evening, she had crept down the stairs and escaped.

Now, she was standing in the backyard, calling Sam's cell from her own and waiting for him to answer. Finally, a groggy voice answered the line, "Hello?"

"Sam, wake up and come outside."

"What the hell, Jo? It's like 2 am." Sam sounded confused and sleepy, just an edge of worry creeping into his voice.

"Just get out here. I need to talk to you." Jo answered impatiently.

"Alright, alright." He answered before the line clicked off.

Jo quickly scurried up into the tree house; she knew Sam would know where to find her.

When he finally hauled himself up into the space, lit only with a small LED lantern that had been left behind at some point, Jo smiled a little crazily.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," he answered, watching her worriedly. He had only taken enough time to pull a tshirt on with his boxer shorts. "What's going on?"

"I'm leaving. Probably tomorrow. I told mom tonight and she freaked out – even worse than I thought she would. So, yeah. I'm leaving tomorrow."

Sam blanched. His jaw flexed and a dozen different emotions passed behind his eyes before he settled on confusion with a touch of anger. "I'm sorry, Jo. I really don't understand what you mean. Where are you going?"

Jo shrugged, laughing, "That's the beauty of it. Anywhere. Everywhere. I'm going to _go_ wherever I want and _see_ whatever I want. _Do_ whatever I want."

"You can't just leave, Jo." Sam protested, stepping closer.

"Yes, I can actually. And I'm going to." Jo snapped, frustration coloring her tone.

"What about college?" He asked.

She tugged her hand through her hair, pulling it back behind her shoulders. "I'm taking a semester off. I think I'm going to head west first. I want to see the ocean, maybe travel north for a while. I just want to see something new."

Sam was quiet for a long while, looking out the small window, his jaw still clenching. Jo had known he was going to be surprised by her announcement but she thought he would have at least have been a little more excited for her. He knew she had always wanted to do something like this.

"Why are you being this way?" Jo asked angrily.

"I was supposed to have the summer," he said quietly.

Jo took a step closer. "What are you talking about?"

Sam looked into her eyes and Jo felt her breath freeze in her lungs. There was a look on Sam's face she had never expected to see on Sam's face, especially not directed at her. Wanting.

"I was supposed to have the summer," he repeated slowly, "to tell you I love you."

Jo closed her eyes, thoughts racing. When she finally opened them, Sam was another step closer. "You…what?" She asked weakly.

"I love you Joanna Beth. I've been in love with you for as long as I've known what it meant to love someone."

Jo swallowed thickly and looked away, unable to take all of these emotions in at once. Finally, without words to express the thoughts and feelings rushing through her minds and heart, she took the final step to close the distance between them and, standing on tiptoe, slid her hands across Sam's shoulders, up his neck and tangled her fingers through his hair, pulling his head down and pressing her mouth to his.

It took a moment, maybe just a heartbeat of time, before Sam responded. He wrapped Jo in his arms and pulled her closer, angling his head and taking the kiss deeper. Jo slid one hand from his hair and slipped it under the back of his t-shirt, stroking the soft skin covering the lean muscles of his back. As if he couldn't get her close enough, Sam finally muttered something under his breath when they broke apart for a moment, then; he knelt down slightly and hoisted Jo up raising her up to his height. She eagerly slid her arms around his shoulders and slipped her legs around his waist, pressing as closely as possible.

Several minutes of heated kissing and exploring touches later, during which Sam had leaned his back against the wall and slid down until he was sitting on the floor with Jo on his lap, he lifted his mouth from Jo's. He bit his lower lip and studied her dazed expression before saying, "I think we should probably stop now."

Jo waited until her rapid breathing slowed slightly before asking, "Why?"

A slight, half smile quirked Sam's mouth before he kissed her once more, softly, before he answered, "Because, Jo, I don't want out first time together to be on the hard floor of this tree house."

Jo giggled, which she despised, before answering. "Fine. I guess the splinters might make things uncomfortable."

Sam leaned his forehead against hers and sighed. Jo closed her eyes, soaking up the sensation of being almost one continuous point of contact with Sam, before she leaned back.

"I probably better get back home."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow," Sam said, as they both stood in the yard after climbing down from the treehouse.

With a slight smile, Jo walked to the front of the house. Just as she was about to pull away, she leaned out the open driver's side window and called softly, "I love you too, Sam."

Sam watched her taillights disappear before walking into the house in a daze. He was almost too excited to sleep. He had finally told Jo how she felt and she had felt the same way. _Tomorrow_, he thought to himself, _they would talk everything over and decide where to go from here_.

He never expected that he would wake up in the morning to Ellen pounding on the front door demanding to know where Jo had run off to.

XXXX

_Twenty-five years old_

Sam watched the chaos in the backyard with a smile. He was glad that this was his brother's headache and not his own. Dean was freaking out, worried about everything, while Cas was calm and collected, quietly directing the florist and caterers to their places. They were getting married in the evening in the Winchester's backyard. Sam was Dean's best man while Cas's brother Gabriel was standing up on his side. The ceremony was going to be small and intimate, just friends and family, with a quiet reception afterwards. Sam had no idea how Cas had managed to talk Dean out of eloping to Vegas. Honestly, he probably didn't want to know.

During a lull in the activity, Dean crossed over to Sam. "This is insane. I had no idea there would be so much work involved in having a wedding. We should have gone to Vegas."

Sam laughed and bumped his arm against Dean's, "Yeah, but think about how happy you've made Cas."

Dean got the dopey look on his face Sam had grown used to seeing when Cas was involved, "Yeah, you're right."

After staring like a lovesick idiot for a minute, Dean looked up at his brother. He hesitated a moment before saying, "I forgot to tell you, but Jo is going to be here."

Sam cleared his throat and looked away across the lawn to where the treehouse used to be. There was a big storm a few years ago and the old thing had finally fallen apart. "I thought Ellen said she couldn't make it back."

Dean shrugged, "Ellen just said her situation changed. I'm not really sure what she meant."

Sam shook his head slightly, "Well, mom will be happy to see her again."

"What about you?" Dean asked. He knew everything about what had happened that night after graduation and the morning after. A few weeks later, he had caught Sam in the treehouse trying to work his way through a six-pack he had stolen from John's garage fridge. After a short lecture on the stupidity of underage drinking and stealing from their dad, Dean had plopped down next to Sam on the floor of the treehouse and pulled a bottle from the case for himself with an order to tell him what was going on. Sam had spilled everything.

All throughout the summer and that first semester of school, Sam had received postcards from places all over the country. Sometimes there were short notes on the back, sometimes they were blank, the final one, after Sam repeatedly ignored Jo's phone calls for months, just said I Miss You. The Christmas Jo returned home before starting college, Sam didn't come home. He started dating Ruby then. He knew Dean must have told Bobby and Ellen and they must have told Jo, because the calls and postcards stopped.

Sam hadn't seen Jo since. He knew from Ellen and Bobby that she had settled in Chicago and was writing a travel column for a travel magazine. He also knew that she had been engaged for a short time to a detective but things hadn't worked out. Sort of the way his engagement to Ruby had fallen apart after she realized he was pursuing environmental law and not a more lucrative position at a private firm.

"I'll be fine. " Sam answered casually. "It's been seven years, Dean. That's a lot of water under the bridge."

"If you say so," Dean responded, noncommittally.

XXXX

Jo was late for the wedding. As her taxi pulled up to the curb, she could hear the reception in full swing in the backyard. She paid the driver and hauled her small suitcase to the front porch, stowing it under the porch swing, before she straightened and smoothed the simple blue knee length dress she was wearing. She took a deep breath and walked towards the party.

She stood at the edge of the party and saw Mary and John, Bobby and her mom, Dean and Cas, even Charlie, Garth, and Ash from high school, but no Sam. Jo wasn't sure if she was relieved or let down. Dean glanced up from a conversation with a group of people surrounding him and Cas and saw her, waving before he broke away from the group and gathering her into a bone crushing hug. When he finally put her down, Cas was standing next to them, smiling hugely. She had been home enough times throughout the years that they had formed an easy friendship. They had spent enough holidays together as a big extended family that the reception really felt like coming home. Even if Sam had managed to avoid being around her for seven years.

She smiled and talked, moving through the crowd with ease, stopping with her parents and John and Mary for a long while. After a long while, she grabbed a glass of wine from a passing tray and walked away from the crowd. Before her mind caught up with her feet, she was standing under the old oak tree that used to hold the tree house. Jo looked up into the branches and sighed. Things always changed, no matter how much she wished they would stay the same.

She jumped when she heard a voice speak out from the shadows. "I didn't think you would be out here."

"Sam?" She asked, trying to peer into the darkness. The lanterns that illuminated the yard closer to the house didn't reach this far. There was only a pool of nothingness spreading out into the woods she knew stood behind John and Mary's yard. Jo took a step farther away from the party, "Sam, are you out here?" She asked again.

She heard footsteps and looked up in surprise as Sam appeared from the darkness.

"Wow," said, "You've changed." He was taller than she remembered. He had added on muscle and the baby fat had disappeared from his cheeks revealing a beautifully sculpted face. His dark hair was longer, falling around his face and making her fingers itch to touch it.

Sam smiled sardonically. "You too," he said with a leer.

"Maybe you haven't changed for the better," she commented, preparing to walk back to the party.

"What the hell did you think was going to happen, Jo? That nothing would have changed? We were just going to be the same after everything that had happened." His voice was cold, every word precisely spoken and lacking emotion.

"I wasn't expecting you to ignore me for almost a year." She answered angrily. Suddenly an argument that had been waiting for far too long was at the forefront. "You were my best friend for my whole life, and then suddenly it was like I didn't exist."

"You left first," Sam said angrily, stepping closer.

"I told you I was leaving," she spat back, voice quivering with emotion.

"I didn't think you would actually go through with it." He suddenly seemed defeated, stepping back and turning away. "It's stupid to fight about this after all this time. We can't be the same people we were then." He laughed mirthlessly. "We were practically children."

"It wouldn't have worked, Sam." Jo said quietly to his retreating back.

He stopped, turning to say over his shoulder, "You don't know that."

"You were going to California, Sam. You had everything planned out. You knew what you were going to do with your life. I was going to be stuck here without a clue what I wanted out of life and I would have been miserable. Trying to make something work with half of the country between us would have made us both miserable."

"You didn't even try." Sam said, stepping closer once more, anger and hurt creeping into his voice. "You made the decision for both of us."

"I didn't want to get my heart broken. I knew how it would end, Sam. You knew exactly who you were at eighteen and I didn't have a clue who I was."

Sam threw his arms wide and opened his mouth before halting whatever he was going to say and walking away. This time, Jo didn't stop him.

Later, when Jo was tucked into her bed in her old room at her mom and Bobby's, Jo ran the entire conversation through her mind on a loop. Eventually, she covered her face with her pillow and slid into a miserable, fitful sleep.

During the early morning hours, Jo woke to a sound of something tapping against the window. She thought at first that it was rain, and then she realized the moon was still shining brightly through the leaves of the trees surrounding the house. She sat up and walked to the window, looking down, she stepped back in surprise when she saw Sam standing in the yard. She raised the window and leaned out to hiss, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to apologize." He called back.

"You don't have to apologize. You were right, I shouldn't have left like that back then." She whispered back loudly.

"No, I mean I'm sorry I didn't let you explain back then. I should have at least listened to what you had to say."

"Sam, I left without saying anything to anyone. I know that was the wrong thing to do."

"Jo, we've wasted seven years, let's not waste another minute arguing over who was the most wrong seven years ago."

"Stay right there," Jo called out before turning and sprinting out of her room. She darted down the stairs and out the door, where Sam met her halfway on the old porch.

When she was standing in front of him, she asked, "So you don't want to waste any more time?"

He shook his head, a beautiful smile stealing across his face, sending his dimples into sharp relief, "Not another minute." He answered.

"Then shut up and kiss me." Sam stepped forward and leaned down to capture her mouth with his. His arms circled her waist, pulling Jo's body against his while his mouth ravaged hers. Jo quickly slipped her arms up his chest and into the hair she had been dying to touch earlier. Too quickly though, she pulled back, breaking the kiss.

"Wait," she said, ignoring the whine that slipped from Sam's throat. "You live in California and I live in Chicago. How is this going to work?"

Sam huffed out a laugh and leaned his forehead against Jo's. "I'm actually in between firms at the moment. I have an interview in Chicago in two weeks, among other places."

"Wow," Jo said softly.

Laughing, Sam pulled Jo closer, whispering against her ear, "Hey, Harvelle…"

"What?" She asked.

"Quit wasting time and kiss me." Sam answered.

And she did.

The End


End file.
